1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a communication control system, and more particularly, to a communication control system and method on a communication network or medium, such as the Internet, that enables more convenient and effective use of various communication devices, such as IP telephone, chatting, e-mail, fax, etc.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
The Internet is a global group of computers linked into a huge network so that they can easily share files and communicate with one another. The Internet is one of many interactive devices developed to provide information to various computer users. The state of the Internet is continually evolving and changing both in scope and technology. The Internet has become a super-structure allowing the exchange of information to take place rapidly from almost any location in the world.
Recently, IP phone (Internet Protocol Telephone, and a.k.a. Internet phone) has been introduced, wherein the Internet becomes the transmitting medium so that a party can talk to another other party through IP. Although IP has certain problems of being somewhat inconvenient in its use and to some degree low in its sound quality compared to conventional telephones, its use is being wide spread due to the substantial advantage in the aspect of toll charge. Especially, among the businesses with large numbers of long distance call usage, it is receiving favorable reactions.
Although, in spite of low or no toll charges, the IP telephone is not widely used among general households due to its sound quality problems. It is still being used in forms of connecting software IP telephone through personal computer and making long distance or international calls through gateways provided by service vendors.
The call center products presently being marketed for businesses or store customer services are designed to handle conventional telephone, IP telephone, chatting, e-mail, fax, etc. in a single web page.
In spite of the above explained facts, there have been substantial difficulties in practical use of IP phone due to the lack of technologies that serve to facilitate convenient use of IP phone, chatting, e-mail, fax, etc. The user, after finding out the IP number of the business or the store he wants to communicate with, must input the other party's IP in order to place a call. Since an IP is unfamiliar with and difficult to remember for the general public (especially, in case of IPv6, the string of numbers is too lengthy), it created substantial difficulties. This type of inconvenience in its use will act as an obstacle to the wide spread use of IP telephones among general households in the future.
Furthermore, another deficiency has been a lack of service function that can appropriately switch and change the communication method in accordance with communication environment, which prevented maximization of communication efficiency under given conditions. For example, maximizing the communication efficiency has been made difficult due to the lack of service function that can switch and change to chatting while IP phone is being used if the Internet traffic increases.